Who else likes cemetaries? Unknown Confederate Soldier....

[Gary in Pennsylvania]

Who else likes cemetaries? Unknown Confederate Soldier....

Had an appointment to get my Toyota Sienna Minivan inspected today.

Shop is in Pittston, Pa.

Went for a walk with the wife & youngest son while work was performed.

Found ourselves in the WYOMING (PITTSTON) Cemetery.

Saw this gravestone......along with MANY other fascinating gravestones.......one with a birth date that appeared to be in the 1700's with a deceased date about the 18-teens!
http://pennsylvaniagravestones.org/view.php?id=23590



Anyways - my wife and I LOVE walking through cemeteries. We love the notion that our thoughts about "what's your story" or "what were you like?" or "What happened that took you so young?" etc.... gives a warped sense/jolt of life or validation to these long ago deceased. It breaths life or truth into their dormant past.




I mean - how often does any one modern-day human really take the time to really think about 'Joe Blow' born in 1888 and died in 1952?

I DO!


But ONLY when I walk through the cemetery.





I wonder - "When's the last time this soul has been recharged with living thought? When's the last time his long passed soul has had ANYONE wonder about him/her?"
I honestly find the whole notion quite moving.


There are gravestones so weathered and worn that the text cannot even be made out.
There are others that have a deceased date back in the 1940's but the gravestone looks new and is adorned with flowers, trinkets, and mementos as telltale signs that someone today still keeps those dead alive in memory.






I walk among the HUNDREDS of gravestones.


How surreal is that?
Folks dying decades or more ago.
Graves actually have VERY large trees growing up where the body is buried reflecting the age and inattentiveness towards the grave.







Really puts into perspective that no matter HOW proud you are of yourself........you really are NOTHING in the great scheme of things.
We're nothing.
So make the absolute BEST of what we can while we're living.
Create as much 'positive' in others while we can in our living years.


Think about it........in just YOUR county alone.......how many dead bodies are buried under the ground?
On the PLANET? There's TENS OF BILLIONS. Since the beginning of time.




My wife and I feel the same about 'death'. And we try to teach out children the same.
It's tough to capture in just one post - but everybody is SOMEBODY. Everybody was/is important to somebody somewhere/sometime. We'll likely NEVER know their story - but we somehow recharge that souls 'batteries' by taking a moment out our living time and devoting it to thinking of this past soul. What's your story? Who were you? Veteran? Coal? What? Children? Where?
And honestly - CARE.
I do.....






So ...... who else finds walking through a cemetery as moving as I do?


Share your thoughts.
Share your story.........






Thanks!

 

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[spartacus53]

Re: Who else likes cemetaries? Unknown Confederate Soldier....

I have done the same as you for many years and find it fascinating. I had also found a marked grave of a Confederate solider at the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx!!! Up in Boston, I visited the graveside of "Mother Goose", and several other prominent people from that area. In NYC St Johns by Wall St has some really markers including Hamilton and Robert Fulton. (Side note: Robert Fulton did not invent the Steamboat) For me the older the stone the better, especially when written in middle English.

I love looking at some of the names and odd name pairing that you will see as well, that can always be a hoot. Yes, at some point we will all face the final curtain, but I will not be under ground. I say light me up and send my ashes anywhere you please. If someone wants to reply and say how would you like getting flushed down a toilet, I say all the better!! It'll give me a chance to explore the oceans of the world

You can't help but to wonder who these people were and what they did, and how they lived in life. Now I will only stop at the older cemeteries, they have more to offer in my opinion.

 

[bigtim1973]

Re: Who else likes cemetaries? Unknown Confederate Soldier....

We enjoy it also. I love reading the beautiful scriptures, poems, letters and various other quotes from the older tombstones also. I found out by talking to my neighbor that there are 3 unknown Federal soldiers buried less than 100 yards from my house in an old family cemetery. They only have rocks for tombstones. They were on their way back to Ohio(their home state) and all 3 had sevier wounds from battle. The family took them in and tried to nuture them back to health but all 3 died. I got to see the graves when my neighbor took me to that old family cemetery. There are about 9 graves total and 3 of them were the unknown soldiers with just rocks marking where they lay. It is sad. I am sure their family wondered what happened. We found a revolutionry soldiers grave one day while just out driving around and stopping at a random cemetary. It was the only one we have ever saw too. It is kind of weird but my sweetie and I both feel cemetaries are very peaceful. Here is my great, great, great grandfathers tombstone from my mothers side of the family who was a confederate soldier and also a P.O.W. captured in the battle of cedar creek in 1864 but was later returned during a prisoner exchange, Tim

 

[spartacus53]

Re: Who else likes cemetaries? Unknown Confederate Soldier....

Here is my great, great, great grandfathers tombstone from my mothers side of the family who was a confederate soldier and also a P.O.W. captured in the battle of cedar creek in 1864 but was later returned during a prisoner exchange, Tim

This is what I like.... James Dinkens was 37-38 when he went off to war, no spring chicken

 

[ivan salis]

Re: Who else likes cemetaries? Unknown Confederate Soldier....

its humbling to be among the "great" dead , and to know that one day --you will join their ranks -- that your deeds and misdeeds will be known -- --like the vikings of old said ---lo I see the blood lines of my father and mother and they bid me to join with them.

 

[bigtim1973]

Re: Who else likes cemetaries? Unknown Confederate Soldier....

My father is a veteran from world war 2 and growing up hearing him talk about it, I have really become interested in the history of WW2. I also have a soft spot for the WW2 veterans graves that I come across from time to time and here is one of my favorite ones, I know it only says tail gunner B-17 WW 2 on it but, to me that says more in those few words than 1000 or more words could describe on what this man went through for our country.

 

[lonesomebob]

Re: Who else likes cemetaries? Unknown Confederate Soldier....

After I retired ,I was given a job of making foundations for grave stones. I had thirteen small cemeteries. In one was my favorite stone. It said only,The grave of James. no date nothing to tell if James was a boy a man or slave or even a faithful dog. The stone is from the early 1800's, the town hall burned several times over the years and the records lost. I do leave a token for James when I pass by. another is a stone commemorating a WW2 destroyer ,lost in the south China sea. I knew the sailor,as he was my digging partner for several years. I keep a flag on this one too. Another was a small iron marker . It stated Spanish Amer ican War. another was an iron cross simply stating ,Spanish American War. We hunted up the name and stats,I appealed to the veterans administration for a stone. When it was delivered,I set it in place with the iron cross beside it, We all have our little charities. Bob